The big news was in the NL West, where the white-hot Dodgers finished on a 19-1 pace, including a perfect 6-0 final week, to win the division by 5…but they got a major assist from the Padres, who went 5-1, including a 2-1 series win over the DBacks…Dodgers finished as the only triple-digit winner in the ASFBL this year…the Brewers coasted to a comfortable 12-game divisional win in the central, but didn’t sit on their laurels as they finished 8-2…Playing on the road, the Braves took 2 of 3 from the Mets and swept the Phils to take the NL East by a game…the spoiler team was the Rockies, who gave a huge assist by taking a series from the Nats….and the Bravos did it with more in-division wins than any other team but Arizona…

That sets up the Nationals hosting the DBacks in the NL wildcard…a special shout-out goes to the Cubs, who finished in the 3rd spot…

AL PLAYOFF RACES

Tony’s Bosox held serve with the best record in the league and the AL East crown…it’s no surprise that Cleveland claimed the AL central, ending on a winning note…The Chisox finished strong at 5-1…the big race was in the west, where the Mariners finished with a furious 5-1 as Houston stumbled at 2-5, but still had enough in the tank to finish up by 2…

That means that the AL East has 3 teams in the playoffs as the Rays host the Yankees…I owe credit to John Weerts for noticing this, but the Rays are the lone AL team to enter the playoffs with a positive WOR, while all 5 NL playoff teams are head of the actual clubs…great entry into the league by Alan Minsky…congrats to Adam of the Mariners and Greg of the Angels for just missing out on the final playoff spots.

One more special round of congrats goes the Orioles, who finished +31 in WOR, almost doubling the second-highest finisher,

RANDOM: If anyone on the east coast can prove that they watched the end of the San Diego vs. Arizona game on Sept 28 — two eliminated teams that played 15 innings over 5 hours, ending at 3am EST — I’ll give them 10 free waivers to start the year.

HOMER TIME: There are 10 former CSUF Titans in the MLB playoffs, including Kris Davis. Sure, he’s leading MLB in homers, but the stat nerd in me is far more impressed by this: He’s hit exactly .247 for four years in a row. That’s got to be a record, right? And maybe one that will never be broken. The odds against any other player ever hitting .247 for four consecutive years where they qualified for batting title have to be astronomical…and I am equally impressed by Terrance Gore; when I heard he had more career stolen bases than plate appearances I thought it must be like 3 and 2, but he’s played in 5 consecutive season and has 27 stolen bases (19 plate appearances)…I’m almost more impressed that he has 63 games and only 19 plate appearances…

PLAYOFF PROTOCOL: I’ll have the wild card schedule set up by tomorrow and will ask the Nats, DBacks, Rays, and Yankees to enter their lineups by Friday morning. We play a best-of-3 wildcard series, and the winner gets the top seed (Boston in the AL, Dodgers in the NL). Houston hosts Cleveland in the ALDS while the Brewers travel to Atlanta in the NL. Remember that regular season use stats are now frozen, so that while players continue to adjust they cannot become more (or less) overused than they are right now.